15 Things I Just Learned About Actors And What They Did To Completely Nail A Role

Broken teeth, fellatio, and more!

If you thought all actors did was run lines to perfect a scene, prepare for the wildest wake-up call of your life! Here are just a few examples I learned about this year:

1. Jennifer Lawrence — Winter's Bone

Roadside Attractions / Roadside Attractions / Everett Collection, James Devaney / GC Images / Getty Images

While many fans remember watching Jennifer as Katniss Everdeen going to extreme measures to survive in The Hunger Games, Jennifer seemed to do the same thing for her role in the 2010 coming-of-age film Winter's Bone. She revealed she learned how to skin and gut a dead squirrel so she could do so onscreen.

2. Brad Pitt — Fight Club

20th Century Fox, Jennifer Graylock — PA Images / PA Images via Getty Images

In order to really take this 1999 American cult classic to the next level, Brad voluntarily had a dentist chip pieces from his front teeth to play a character heavily involved in illegal brawls. After filming finished, Brad went right back to the dentist to get his winning smile back.

3. Charlize Theron — Monster

Newmarket Films, Jon Kopaloff / Getty Images

In this 2003 biographical crime drama, Charlize portrays serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who murdered seven of her clients. To completely channel her real-life character, Charlize shaved her eyebrows, wore prosthetic teeth, and made sure her hair was thinned and repeatedly fried her ends.

4. Jamie Dornan — The Fall

Netflix, Leon Bennett / WireImage / Getty Images

He probably should've kept this information to himself, but Jamie admitted to following a woman off the train to put him in the right mindset for his role as a serial killer. He said he kept his distance as he followed her around a couple of street corners. “It felt kind of exciting, in a really sort of dirty way,” Jamie told the Los Angeles Times.

5. Rooney Mara — The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (US)

Columbia Pictures / Columbia Pictures/ Everett Collection, Michael Loccisano / Getty Images

Rooney starred in the US film adaptation of the popular Swedish fictional series about a hacker hired to help solve a murder. For this 2011 neo-noir psychological thriller, Rooney went as far as getting her nipples pierced to match the character's description in the book trilogy. But because her character is covered in tattoos and piercings, Rooney also got four ear piercings, as well as in her lip and nose.

6. Bryan Cranston — Breaking Bad

AMC, Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images for Tribeca Festival

There's a reason Bryan looked so convincing as an illegal drug chemist in this 2008 crime drama series. Bryan and Aaron Paul were both taught how to make meth by DEA chemists, who were also consultants on the show. Bryan admitted they didn't actually cook the meth, but they were instructed on the detailed process.

7. Chloë Sevigny — The Brown Bunny

Wellspring, Dave Benett / Getty Images for amfAR

Chloë gave audiences the shock of their lives when she decided to actually perform oral sex on her costar Vincent Gallo, who also happened to be the director and her boyfriend at the time. While there's no problem with consensual sex acts being performed onscreen, viewers of the 2003 experimental road drama were not ready.

8. Jamie Foxx — Ray

Universal Pictures, Steve Granitz / WireImage / Getty Images

Excuse my bias, but Ray is one of the best biographical films of all time. Jamie truly embodied the iconic musician, from his mannerisms to the music itself. To truly capture the essence of Ray Charles, Jamie lost 30 pounds for the role and even wore prosthetic eyelids, which he had glued shut for 14 hours a day. Jamie later admitted to having panic attacks because of it.

9. Nicole Kidman — The Paperboy

Millennium Films, NBC / NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Have you ever heard the claim that you should pee on a jellyfish sting to relieve the pain? Well, that popular myth brings us to the next scene on our list. In this 2012 American crime drama, Zac Efron's character is stung by a jellyfish. And instead of faking the stunt, Nicole chose the authentic route — she urinated on Zac's face!

10. Halle Berry — Jungle Fever

Universal Pictures, Alberto Rodriguez / NBCUniversal/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

To really set the smell — I mean tone — of her role as a crackhead in Spike Lee's 1991 romantic drama, Halle opted to forgo showering for about eight weeks. Although she admitted "certain body parts got washed," she didn't bathe the entire time they shot the film.

11. Choi Min-sik — Oldboy

Show East, Woohae Cho / Getty Images

If you're a fan of action movies, then there's a strong chance you've seen this 2003 neo-noir film. Choi performed most of his own stunts while playing a man who's been imprisoned for 15 years. And one of the stunts just so happened to be one of the most talked-about scenes in the film: Choi eating a live octopus. In fact, because they had to do four separate takes, Choi ended up eating four. Choi is also a Buddhist and a vegetarian, so he apologized to the sea creatures and said a prayer for each octopus before putting it in his mouth.

12. Rosamund Pike — Gone Girl

20th Century Fox, Stephane Cardinale - Corbis / Corbis via Getty Images

If "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," then Rosamund's character in this 2014 psychological thriller was that times 100! In one of her most memorable scenes, Rosamund seduces her ex and then proceeds to slit his throat with a box cutter. And in order to prepare herself for that, Rosamund practiced using a box cutter on a pig carcass at a local butcher shop just to "understand what it would be like."

13. Michelle Williams — My Week With Marilyn

The Weinstein Co.

Marilyn Monroe was known for a lot of things, and one of them was her distinctive walk. As a way to capture her signature wiggle, Michelle walked around with a belt tied around her knees.

14. John David Washington — Tenet

Warner Bros. Pictures, Rosdiana Ciaravolo / Getty Images for Netflix

For this 2020 sci-fi action film, John David plays a CIA agent participating in an extraction operation. For this special role, he not only learned how to talk backward but was also taught how to walk, fight, block, punch, and run backward.

15. Ruth Wilson — Dark River

Arrow Films, David M. Benett / Getty Images

While preparing to play a farmer in this 2017 dark British drama, Ruth did the obvious and decided to work on a farm in Yorkshire to learn the ins and outs of the trade. What wasn't so obvious were the skills she picked up, which included but weren't limited to castrating lambs, clipping feet, and shearing sheep.

Do you have another interesting fact you learned about an actor's preparation for a role? Let me know in the comments below!